We Have a New Cat

We stopped by the humane society on Friday with a cat carrier in tow. And this time, we said to ourselves, if we saw a cat we liked, we would take it home. We hopped into one of the cat rooms, much more well stocked with cats this time, and took a look around. There were a lot of good contenders. I was quickly drawn to a black cat high up on a perch that seemed really anxious to nuzzle my hand when I came in. There was another in the same room that was small and a little spooked, but very vocal. Not as friendly, though. The other room had a very playful off-orange guy who was chasing a toy mouse around the room and a skinny, long-haired black cat with smokey tufts behind his ears and very, very soft fur. Jess had her favorites, but I was deliberately the one in charge of picking the cat. I was excited, but a little anxious, too. Picking a cat is a big responsibility. There were a couple of kittens, too. Little chirpy ones who were the very picture of adorableness.

I ended up gravitating back to the first room, where I reached up and gently took the black cat down off his perch. He immediately started purring and giving me affectionate face-bumps. I stayed in there for a while, and he just wanted to purr and purr and get petted as much as he could. Tyler was along with us, and the cat was very patient with him and not spooked at all. He even gave Tyler a rub or two. I thought he was the nicest, most affectionate cat I had ever seen, and I wanted to take him home.

So we did! We signed the paperwork, put him in the carrier, and drove him home with a napping Tyler in the back seat. We discussed names on the drive. 'Death' seemed appropriate because he's mostly black and we're Pratchett fans, but it's an awkward cat name. We toyed with 'Grim' for a p inhile, but that's pretty awkward too. For the moment we're calling him Gizmo, after another cat I knew when I was volunteering at the humane society up in Juneau. He was also black and very, very nice. We may change our minds, though.

We set him up in our upstairs guest bedroom with all the kitty basics and I tried to sleep in there with him to make him feel welcome. Tried, I say, because the affection *does not stop*. He was giving me head bonks for most of the night, in between nuzzling up and sleeping in my armpit. And he does so with some serious muscle. He's about Raoul's size, and just wants nothing but love and cuddles as much as you can give. He's an absolute sweetie-pie, and I couldn't be happier that he's ours.

In other news, Jess didn't get much sleep last night either. Tyler was having some sort of coughing and heaving problem, and he spit up in his bed a couple of times. I helped out, changing sheets, but he kept going back to sleep, he just needed some assurances in between episodes. Luckily, we all slept in this morning. I got up at 9 and I was the first one up. I wasn't sure where Jess was, but it turns out she had camped out in Tyler's room for some Zs. They're both napping now.

We went out and got some random shopping done, picking up some stuff for tiny house repairs and some more clothes for Tyler. But we also took Tyler out for his first haircut. The place was pretty cool, and they let you pick what TV you want to use to distract your kid (or video games! I was jealous.) We picked Sesame street, which was briefly interesting but before too long, Tyler started putting on his scared face. Did not like! He got a little grumpy while trying to cut his hair, but we distracted him by playing a movie of me tickling him on my cell phone. Worked quite well, and he's looking much less shaggy now.

So clearly I owe you guys some pictures of the new cat and Tyler's haircut, but I have to connect a few different cameras for that. So I'll do that later. I promise both are really cute, though. Really cute.

-N